SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean 
investigators have suspended efforts to enforce an arrest warrant for embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday, hours into a standoff in which authorities tried to detain the leader following his short-lived martial law declaration.
Some 80 police and investigators had entered the presidential compound in Seoul in the early morning to take Yoon into custody for questioning, the CIO said – deepening what had already been a weeks-long showdown with the defiant and embattled leader.
Investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) approached within a couple hundred meters of Yoon’s residence, but were blocked by a “human wall” of around 200 soldiers and members of the presidential security detail, CIO said Friday afternoon. There were also several altercations of “varying intensity,” the office said.
Investigators called off the arrest warrant enforcement Friday afternoon citing the safety of the people on the ground, according to a statement. The warrant, which is valid until January 6, remains in effect and could be extended.
The atmosphere in the streets around the compound was heavily charged, with police flanking streets near Yoon’s residence and hundreds gathering to support the leader, who plunged the nation into political chaos with his swiftly overturned declaration one month ago.
Yoon, who was stripped of presidential powers after lawmakers voted to impeach him last month, is wanted for questioning in multiple investigations, including accusations of leading an insurrection – a crime punishable by life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
A court earlier this week approved the warrant to detain him – the first time such action has been taken against a sitting president. In response, the presidential security team said that security measures “will be taken in accordance with due process.”
Yoon, himself a former prosecutor, has refused to answer three summonses by investigators in recent weeks asking for his cooperation, according to the CIO.
After suspending efforts to detain Yoon, the CIO expressed “deep regret” at “the suspect’s attitude of not following the process by law.”
The CIO said “it is virtually impossible to execute a warrant” at Yoon’s residence while security there remains in place. It said it will “strongly request” that the acting President Choi Sang-mok orders his security comply with the arrest warrant.
Yoon’s declaration of martial law a month ago was met with widespread public backlash, with members of his own party turning on him to support the impeachment vote following his refusal to resign.